October 2022 Archives
On the House
Free data make the mapping world go round Reliable geospatial data used to be hard to find and expensive. But thanks to the profusion of online data repositories, it’s now at our fingertips for free. It is telling that one of the first websites where mapmakers can have access to free satellite imagery was created […]
In Vegas, a Vision of the Future
If further proof is needed that in-person conferences are back and stronger than ever, just turn to last month’s Commercial UAV Expo in Las Vegas. A record number of attendees spent three days perusing a jam-packed Caesars Forum convention hall looking at everything from long-established Amazon Prime’s latest delivery drone to up-and-coming Fixar’s autonomous fixed-wing […]
Is High-Precision GNSS Coming to Your Smartphone?
We have seen over the past four decades how our traditional profession of making maps went from obscurity to mainstream to widely adopted, everyday reality. When I attended university for my geodesy degree in the early 80s everyone who had a car also had a road map in the glove compartment—from a basic road grid […]
The Ocean Mapping Imperative
Wind and solar-powered uncrewed surface vehicles offer a boost to global surveying efforts. Since 2017, the Seabed 2030 initiative has raised awareness about the importance of mapping the entire seafloor to support a healthy and resilient ocean for the well-being of the entire planet. This partnership between the Nippon Foundation, the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO), […]
UAS and ALTA Surveys – Part Two
Surveying firms that have been successful in incorporating UAS data in ALTA surveys adopt best practices to ensure precision standards are met. Plan, execute, and check. In Part One of this three-part series in the September xyHt issue, we looked at the time/cost/precision proposition of using UAS for elements of ALTA surveys. Firms interviewed agreed […]
Legal Boundaries: Monuments and Corners
Is there a difference between a monument and a corner? Many surveyors use these two terms interchangeably as if they were synonymous. Technically speaking they are not the same, but in many instances a monument will be the physical manifestation of the true corner location. This is the ultimate surveying question, is that monument actually […]